in April this year I traveled to the United States. The purpose was an exchange program covering a stay in Tulsa, OK and a tour through New Mexico which took three and a half weeks in total. Beforehand Delta was chosen because they had the best fares and the best connections. Personally, I would have prefered flying on LH or UA, mainly because they have PTVs on most of their aircraft and I had flown on DL before. I like Delta however

We left on Sunday, April 5 aboard DL 117. It departs at 11 o'clock in the morning which is very convenient because you only have to be at the terminal at about 8 am. SkyTeam members use terminal 3 in STR. My itinerary didn't include any reservations, so I asked for a window seat while checking-in. Unfortunately the agent told me the flight was overbooked, so no more free seats to assign. I was given a seat right in the middle, not the best one, but I could cope with it.
On my way to gate 109 I could already see our aircraft which had arrived from ATL just some minutes prior.

N156DL

Boarding started about 40 minutes before scheduled departure time. As I entered the aircraft, the flight attendant offered me a cockpit visit- and of course I embraced it
Very nice cockpit crew as well, the F/O let me sit in his seat, definitely a great experience.
According to the paperwork our flight would take exactly 10h 01m. There were 111.000lbs of fuel in the tanks.
I took pictures of the flight deck, but I forgot to ask about permission to upload, so I don't really want to post them here... sorry.
A few minutes after we were pushed back and took off from runway 7.
The service on the flight was pretty much the same as in 2007 when I last flew on DL,
peanuts and drinks after departure and lunch some time later. Chicken or pasta were on offer, I opted for the former and it was quite appetizing. Since I didn't have a window seat, I mainly used my iPod or read in the Sky Magazine. Among the movies shown in flight was James Bond Quantum of Solace. A while after reaching mainland the second meal/snack service began which consisted of the la Pizza 4 formaggi. I was hungry and the pizza was pretty filling.
I swapped seats with one of my teachers somewhere over the Southern States, thus was able to take pictures out of the window

Already on approach into ATL.

We landed on runway 8L and taxied to concourse E.

Immigration, customs and security were unproblematic though it took quite a while until we got through. Now we had about 4 hours layover time before flying to TUL which I mainly spent with watching planes and spotting from concourse D. It offers nice and unobstacled views of the aprons, but weather was dull and as the sun was already beginning to set, reflections from the windows became stronger.

N680AW before flight to PHX with continuing service to SNA.

LH A340-300 back to FRA. D-AIGI

It turned out that our flight to TUL would be delayed due to bad weather in the vicinity of Atlanta which caused the inbound flight from BTR to be late. After some more technical issues, we finally blocked off at 9.40pm (schedule was 8.30pm).
The flight was EV 5277 and operated by a CRJ-200, registered N872AS.
At least the FA seemed to be in a good mood, and so was her safety presentation. It was hilarious when she said she would hit anyone trying to enter the cockpit in flight with the coffee machine
Even though night had already fallen in Atlanta, the line for take off was still considerable.
Complimentary beverage and snack service was made, since most passengers had already fallen asleep, the flight attendand gave a second round of drinks and snack for those awake. I appreciated it because I badly needed some caffeine in order not to fall asleep.
We landed 70 minutes late in Tulsa. A long journey had almost come to and end for me.

If you ever happen to be there, I recommend visiting Tulsa Air and Space Museum. A great place for aviation enthusiasts. In fact, it's more than just a museum, because there are lots of things to try out on your own.

Bison, photographed at Tallgrass Prairie

I had a great time in Tulsa and on April 20 it was time to continue to Albuquerque, NM.
Flying TUL-ATL-ABQ was the only viable option for us which also meant to be at the airport very early in the morning. Flight 5098 was due to leave at 5.40am.
The whole terminal was less than empty and check-in went fine and quick, I received boarding passes for both segments, but this time with a window seat on either flight

The flight passed without any special occurrences.

Up next was DL 1853 from ATL-ABQ which left from terminal B, Gate 8 at 10.55am.
Departure was spot on time and off we were with a full loadfactor in both cabins. The 757 we flew on had neither PTVs nor wifi system installed. As you can see, my window had a couple of annoying spots , still it was a nice and scenic flight overall

N603DL

Colorful SkyWest CRJ-900. N821SK

Leaving Atlanta, shortly after departure from runway 26L

Some pictures from New Mexico:

Rio Grande

Road near Taos

Space Hall of Fame in Alamogordo

On April 28 it was time to fly back home. We were due to leave ABQ at 9.35am on DL 1664.
The sun was rising whilst on the way to the airport, check-in and security were problem-free but the line was rather lengthy. I must say I really liked Albuquerque Sunport, nice interior, free wireless LAN and plenty of stations to recharge electronic devices. I originally wanted to take more pictures, but somehow forgot about it... oh well.
Our aircraft was already standing at the gate, MD-88 N973DL. There was another Maddog on spare as pictured in the background (N990DL).

I actually wanted to ask for a cockpit visit, but upon seeing that the pilots were busy, I didn't want to disturb them. This was also the time when the panic about swineflu was in full swing, a couple of passengers were wearing breathing protections.
Flight was full once more, but we left on schedule. Safety presentation was done manually.
After a fairly long the take off roll the JT9Ds were flying us towards ATL. I had an aisle seat and the person at the window was asleep... great... This particular MD-88 featured Delta's gogo wifi inflight system, so I gave it a try. The access was 7,95$. Of course I visited a.net and flightaware to see where we were flying at.

Just after overflying the boarder of Texas

Tasty bagel, price 3$

What I found pretty cool was that the flight attendants came to my seat a couple of times to ask for our remaining flight time. It was quite amazing to see how accurate flightaware's data are, we made a couple of turns on approach to ATL and about 10 seconds later it was visible on my display. Landing on runway 10 with strong breaking action.

Now we had about 4 hours of spare time, again a good possiblity for me to make a tour through the airport's concourses. At first I went to terminal T where DL 116 to STR was scheduled to depart from, and our aircraft was already at the gate.

N16065

Another B767 was to fly to Lagos, Nigeria. N1612T

I thought terminal E would give me the most interesting views and biggest aircraft, and so it turned out to be. Since it was still early in the afternoon only a couple of widebodies were at the gates, among them DL B764, BA B772, NW A332, AF A332.

N836MH

This aircraft flew to BCN some hours later.

I returned to the gate well before scheduled departure time at 5.40pm to recharge my iPod/camera battery.
Soon after boarding was called. I hoped for another cockpit visit, and it worked out
Once again the flight crew was very generous and cordial, the Captain was a former MD-11 pilot at Delta. Having reached for my seat, he came on over the PA saying the flightime would be about an hour shorter than scheduled due to high tailwinds.
We joined the line for take off as number 3 and soon after we were blasting towards the warm evening sky of Georgia. Not much to note about this flight, smooth landing on runway 25 at STR. I once again was allowed to enter the cockpit where the Captain gave me the paperwork from the flight- awesome stuff Thanks again, Capt!

==Conclusion==

I find Delta's product is acceptable. The crews I had were actually very nice, especially the aircrew, but also the flight attendants have a high amount of professionalism and experience. Their international B767-300ER fleet is comparatively outdated and will hopefully be improved in the next years. What I would like to see are PTVs and new seats in Economy, maybe also in Business though it really isn't my affair. The overhead screens are of low image quality unless you're seated very close to them.
However, I do like the content of the entertainment system, movies were well-chosen in my opinion and there was the right proportion between films, sitcoms, advertisements and airshow. On their domestic aircraft PTVs and wifi are continuously being installed. Especially having internet in flight was a cool feature to me. Sign-up was user-friendly and done in a few minutes, connectivity and speed were absolutely flawless. It's worth the money. Catering was satisfying, though their buy on board sandwiches seem a little pricy, but I can't really judge since I didn't purchase one. This was my impression after having flown Delta six times in a month.

I hope you enjoyed reading my trip report. It's actually the first one I've ever written. So I am of course open to criticism and suggestions
Feel free to comment.

Best regards,
-Marius

'He resembled a pilot, which to a seaman is trustworthiness personified.' Joseph Conrad

Love it dude, What a great trip report, it was a very interesting read, well done!!!!! Its awesome that SRT has a DLATL flight, wish ORK would get any TATL service!! again fantastic and great photo's too.

NIce report and nice pictures. Great to hear STR-ATL is overbooked. Means there is a demand for it and that it will stay. It is very nice to have this flight which is quite exotic. I think it is the only flight to the States from Stuttgart and the only flight from the States to Stuttgart. Wonder what people think when they see Stuttgart on the monitors in Atlanta.

Yes, Delta has been flying to STR for many years and apparently they have always had high loads.
The return flight (DL 116) for that matter was also very well booked, 25J/179Y as per loadsheet. Premium traffic is definitely existent.
Cargo was 14 322lbs in case somebody is interested.

'He resembled a pilot, which to a seaman is trustworthiness personified.' Joseph Conrad

Great report and good pictures. I was excited to see another trip report on the only STR TATL route.
I was on the very STR-ATL flight last year and was really happy with DL. Sure, PTVs would be nice but IMO a great crew or better food are more important. Acutally, DL delivered on both of those really well.

It's kinda odd, I know I think flying TUL-DEN-ABQ on WN was also an option, but it didn't work out. Would have loved to see what Southwest is like.
Ironically, our flight route from ATL-ABQ overflew TUL. And I wondered what this big city down there might be...

This is an interesting aspect. Many US-carriers have PTV in large parts of their domestic fleet while it is installed quite slowly on the long-haul fleet. While PTV isn't the most important aspect for me personally, I still wonder about that policy.

I could imagine the cost is higher with big aircraft than with the smaller ones.
Their 767 fleet is huge, but I think they'll keep them for some more years until replaced by the 787. I am going to stay tuned and visit http://blog.delta.com/ for updates on occasion.
The gogo inflight wifi system found on many domestic DL aircraft also creates some revenue, but I don't believe it would work in the airspace outside from the US.

'He resembled a pilot, which to a seaman is trustworthiness personified.' Joseph Conrad

Nice TR, looks like some good flights withn DL & good memories of your travels.

Quoting Luftfahrer (Thread starter): I asked for a window seat while checking-in. Unfortunately the agent told me the flight was overbooked, so no more free seats to assign. I was given a seat right in the middle, not the best one

Good TR, very interesting. It does seem odd to me that you had to go TUL-ATL-ABQ when you could have gone TUL-SLC-ABQ, also on DL, unless that flight was booked full.

I do understand, now that the ok has been given to start installing WiFi in the 767-300 fleet in October. This, from Widgetheads.net:

"Wifi Coming to 767-300 Fleet In October
September 29, 2009
It appears the certificate has been received to authorize use of wifi in the 767-300 fleet. Ship 138 was the prototype 763 to get wifi, and also the first widebody aircraft to have wifi. The rest of the 763 fleet is scheduled to get wifi during overnight mods in October."

"A committee is a group of the unprepared, appointed by the unwilling, to do the unnecessary"----Fred Allen

Quoting Mayor (Reply 22):It does seem odd to me that you had to go TUL-ATL-ABQ when you could have gone TUL-SLC-ABQ, also on DL, unless that flight was booked full.

We got the tickets well in advance, so I guess that was not reason. I looked up the flight today and if the schedules haven't changed in the meantime, it would have departed way too late, hence we'd have lost almost an entire day in ABQ. But now that you mention it, going via SLC sure would have been a great way to get there... one new State and 1 or even 2 new aircraft types that I have yet to fly on.

Quoting Mayor (Reply 22):I do understand, now that the ok has been given to start installing WiFi in the 767-300 fleet in October.

Saw it on Delta's blog the other day. Way to go!

'He resembled a pilot, which to a seaman is trustworthiness personified.' Joseph Conrad